All About: Quartz Countertops

Are you thinking about renovating your kitchen? Doing research on countertop materials? If so, then our Countertop Spotlight series will help you. Today we look at quartz countertops, otherwise known as engineered stone countertops.

I recently upgraded my counters, and after weighing pros and cons of all materials, I settled on quartz. Not only is is durable with almost zero maintenance, you have an array of color options to pick from. - alllebasil

I'm very happy with my Zodiaq Quartz. Colors are good without being too "disco" or "boring" (as opposed to the leading quartz brand). Not a chip in it after 4 years, not a stain or a scratch. Nice and cold for rolling pastry — actually, that's probably the worst aspect: Put your toast down on it for a minute while you get the jam, and you might as well start over. But the heat-distribution quality is also great for defrosting things like a stack of wonton wrappers or a thin steak. - joelfinkle

I'm all about quartz countertops, we've just installed them in our kitchen and they are a wonder to clean. It is true that these days cheap wildly patterned granite (I agree, sometimes they look like straight up barf) are almost universally chosen by developers, this is probably because quartz is more expensive these days. - noelle153

We spent $5K on quartz (I freaking loooove it), where we could have spent about $500 on the same amount of laminate. - angus